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Girl, 10, last seen with Vegas dealer who is accused of Bellagio razor attack

By Ken Ritter Associated Press

Posted:
12/27/2012 11:47:10 AM PST

LAS VEGAS -- Police in Las Vegas issued a new plea for information Thursday about a 10-year-old girl last seen with a casino card dealer just hours before the woman was accused of slashing a co-worker's face with razor blades at a Las Vegas Strip resort.

"We're hoping to reach somebody who may have information that will lead us to the whereabouts of this young girl," police Capt. Chris Jones said.

Police issued a missing persons alert late Tuesday about Jade Morris, who officials say was last seen by her family about 5 p.m. last Friday with Brenda Stokes.

Stokes, 50, also uses the name Brenda Wilson. Police said she was a friend of the girl's father, and was supposed to have taken the girl Christmas shopping at an outlet mall off Interstate 15 near downtown Las Vegas.

Jones, a supervisor in the department's robbery-homicide division, said Stokes returned to another friend the red 2007 Saab sedan that she borrowed for the shopping trip.

A short time later, Stokes was arrested at the Bellagio casino after allegedly attacking a female co-worker, Joyce Rhone, as the woman dealt blackjack.

Stokes is accused of wielding a razor blade in each hand as she attacked Rhone, who was hospitalized with deep cuts on her face, including one from her ear to the edge of her mouth. A police arrest report said Rhone, 44, also had several smaller cuts around her right eye.

Records show that Stokes was being held Thursday on $60,000 bail at the Clark County jail on felony battery with a weapon, burglary and mayhem charges that could get her decades in prison.

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She told a judge Wednesday that she had not obtained a lawyer. She is due again in Las Vegas Justice Court on Friday.

The arrest report says casino video shows Stokes attacking Rhone before a casino patron and security officers intervene. Officer Marcus Martin said the video is evidence that may be shown by prosecutors in court but will not be made public by police.

Police said Stokes later told investigators that she attacked Rhone over harassing phone calls and an unspecified betrayal that ended their seven-year friendship.

Stokes also told police she visited her doctor last week, seeking to be admitted to a hospital "due to feeling like she wanted to hurt someone."

She is reported to have told investigators she hadn't taken a prescription anti-anxiety drug Friday, and that, "Sometimes people just snap."